By SHERRI TAYLOR
Journal News Editor

The question "Paper or plastic?" at the supermarket check-out is a cliché in American life today, but for forestry communities supporting a mill making kraft paper for bag manufacture, the answer is an issue of prosperity or recession. As anyone who lives where a bag company has closed its doors can testify, paper bag usage has declined across the nation. However, recent national media and industry reports show that handles on paper bags have brought about a rise in usage that has many companies hopeful for the future.

"Two areas where we see potential for growth in the market for paper bags with handles are high-end supermarkets looking for a way to distinguish themselves from other stores, and the fast food market," said Bruce Amundson, spokesman for Weyerhaeuser Corporation.

In the mid-1990s, manufacturers saw the market for paper bags slide into near obscurity as plastic bags roared onto the scene with handles that made carrying easier. Then around 1998, paper bag companies, one of the first being Willamette Industries, Inc., began attaching handles to their supermarket bags, causing a resurgence of housewife interest in paper.

Duro Bag Manufacturing Company in Ludlow Kentucky says its production of grocery paper bags has stabilized since handles were introduced, according to a recent industry report in The Wall Street Journal. Weyerhaeuser, who bought out Willamette and acquired their paper mills, now reports a 20% jump in production, turning out 20 million bags a year at their four U.S. mills, according to the same report.

Most of the growth in paper bag usage has been seen on the East coast, around Chicago and in some California communities.

"We haven't seen any increase yet," said Jeff Crouch, General Buyer at Pelican State Wholesale Inc. in Monroe, Louisiana. "We still sell more plastic but the margin is narrow."

However, some area store owners adamantly prefer paper.

"We use paper in most of our stores," said Reggie McDaniel owner of Mac's Fresh Market, a chain of nine grocery stores in central Louisiana. "The only stores we own that use plastic are those that already had it when we took over the business."

McDaniel explained his preference, stating his experience in bagging groceries for 40 years qualified him to make the judgement.

"Paper is easier to bag groceries in," McDaniel said.

Brookshire Grocery Company, with headquarters in Tyler, Texas, provides paper bags in towns that want them.

"We run a lot of paper bags in Louisiana stores," said Sue Cross, Grocery Buyer for Brookshire. That company uses two million paper bags a year in their Brookshire stores and three million through their Super One chains.

"We make paper bags available at all our stores," Ms. Cross said. "but we mainly use plastic because of the cost factor."

Wal-Mart spokesman Olan James at the company's Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters, said that despite the upswing in paper bag usage, their company only uses them in certain stores.

"Plastic bags are standard for Wal-Mart," James said.

At the Winnfield, Louisiana Wal-Mart, no paper is offered, with only plastic bags available. In Jonesboro, Louisiana, where the Smurfit-Stone paper mill makes kraft paper, Wal-Mart customers can choose plastic or paper. Assistant manager Marlon McDonald reported paper usage at 60% with plastic at 40%, part of the reason being that Jonesboro-Hodge once had a paper bag plant and is still the location of a large Smurfit-Stone paper mill that has two paper machines producing the kraft paper used in manufacturing bags. For more than fifty years, a bag plant operated in Hodge.

Stone Container Corp., the previous mill owner at Hodge, entered a joint venture with Gaylord Bags of Bogalusa before selling out to Smurfit. Smurfit-Stone had no interest in producing grocery bags, and sold the plant to Temple-Inland who in turn sold to Duro Bags. Prior to finalizing its purchase, Duro discovered the lease on the Hodge plant ran out in 2005 and the building needed a $1 million repair to its roof. While attempting to withdraw their purchase offer, Duro then suffered the loss of one of their plants by fire, making the purchase more attractive. They moved the machines from Hodge to mills in Florida and Brownsville, Texas, according to sources who worked in the bag plant at the time.

Smurfit-Stone currently operates a large paper bag plant in Arcadia, Louisiana where General Manager Richard Moak says business is steady.

"We produce 78 million paper bags a year that are used for lawn and leaf refuse," Moak said. He said this need is driven by the environmental standard that calls for less plastic being added to landfills. The paper bags produced in Arcadia can actually be chopped up along with the leaf and lawn wastes and added to compost heaps for use in parks and public areas.

At this point, that hasn't begun to be popular in areas where people either burn leaves and limbs or dispose of their yard waste in plastic bags.

In the North, the East and some areas of the West coast, environmental concerns have driven a return to paper because it is naturally biodegradable and is manufactured from a renewable resource - trees. Plastic is made from a non-renewable resource - petroleum.

One of the factors causing companies to turn to plastic has been the cost. Paper bags can cost around 6 cents each while plastic costs only a penny per bag.

"But you can put three times as much in a paper bag. You can't put very much in a plastic bag," said McDaniel of Mac's Fresh Markets. That lowers the difference in price when it's necessary to use three plastic to one paper bag. Also, a paper bag can hold up to 25 pounds. Customers who try that with plastic bags find their groceries on the ground when the handles stretch and break.

Some areas of commerce never left the paper bag market. Those include fast food stores like MacDonalds and Burger King. Those companies studied the problem and found that paper holds the heat, keeping the food fresher while not forming condensation that dampens the food. Also, another plus for paper is that it can be used for printed advertising. Plastic can't be used as well since the bags crumple, making the message and logos unreadable.

"We've worked closely with fast food companies to make certain their bags are sanitary," said Amundson. The process Weyerhaeuser follows assures hygienic methods for producing a bag that customers might tear open and use as a plate for their burgers and fries.

Another high use area for paper is unique. Sheriff and police departments nationwide choose paper as evidence bags for several reasons.

"Certain items of evidence are generally collected in paper bags," said Greg Davies, Chief Deputy at the Winn Parish Sheriff's Department in Winnfield, Louisiana. The reason for that is paper's porous quality. For example, if a bloody shirt is found at a crime scene, it will be air dried and then stored in a paper bag where it will further dry, making testing possible later. If that same evidence is stored in plastic, moisture trapped in the bag will cause the evidence to begin decomposing immediately. Another factor is the possibility of mildew in the humidity of the South. Paper bags prevent that from occurring.

While no one cares to bet on the future of paper returning to dominance, some factors have made the outlook brighter. In Taiwan and South Africa, plastic bags have been banned. In Ireland, they are taxed. In Chicago, some stores don't charge for paper bags but are giving customers 10 cents when they bring paper bags back to reuse.

Handles on paper bags haven't taken hold in this area yet, but they have caused an upsurge in use in other parts of the country. Specialty companies in the East use paper to set themselves apart from ordinary stores while applying the advantages of paper to advertise their store with colorful bags. While paper bags haven't been adopted by large chains, some bag manufacturing companies, including Weyerhaeuser, are making presentations to food sellers, showing why paper is preferable and hoping the paper bag market will continue on an upward spiral.

Many who live in timber oriented areas agree with Roy Jones of Ouachita Distributors in Monroe, Louisiana.

"I prefer paper," Jones said. "I drive these highways in Louisiana and I don't see any plastic growing. I see trees that make paper and that's what I use."

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